HOW welcome is the news that East Coast Main Line rail service will next week approach something like normality.

The journey between the North-East and London will still take about 30 minutes longer than it did before the Hatfield disaster and there will still be 15 per cent fewer trains. A full service will not be resumed until May but, for the first time in months, we can begin to say that the railways are getting there.

The train operating companies now need to try to entice passengers back aboard. Sir Richard Branson began the process by halving some prices on Virgin services and that, along with vigorous marketing, is the sort of offensive that will be needed to attract ex-passengers back to the East Coast.

The companies cannot simply sit back and expect the public to flock back to the stations after the gruelling experiences many have been through recently. But while we welcome the return towards normality, it is worth remembering what normality was like on the East Coast Main Line.

True, the trains were usually punctual and usually clean - an improvement brought about by privatisation. But they were frequently over-crowded, under-staffed and over-priced, with a bewildering array of tickets and savers apparently available. The catering service, although better than the BR days of curled up, dried up sandwiches, still left a lot to be desired, and the information provided both on the phone and on the platform was often incomplete. The stations themselves had often seen nothing more than a lick of paint since Victorian times. And safety, as we now know, had had scant regard.

If rail companies - and the Government - really want to entice back those who have found new ways to fly and drive, and those who've simply learned to stay at home, they must do better than merely restore the status quo.

Dangerous work

THOSE of us who work in offices or factories or call centres, or are retired to the comfort of our homes, often forget that there is a nastier, more violent, side to working life beyond our four walls.

Our nurses get assaulted by drunks, our police are entrapped in ambushes and today we report that our firemen can have their ears bitten off when they put out fires.

The injuries suffered by County Durham fireman Chris Williams are utterly unacceptable, and punishment for the perpetrator should be swift and tough. Mercifully these incidents are rare, but life on the frontline can be unpleasant and dangerous. We shouldn't take these "public servants" for granted.